For many years, trailers have been used to transport goods from place to place. Generally, trailers do not have an independent source of power, and therefore, must be coupled with a powered form of transportation. Long ago, trailers such as wagons or carriages were coupled to horses by connecting the trailer to the horse's harness. More recently, trailers are connected to motorized vehicles such as cars, trucks and the like.
Many methods and devices have been developed for connecting trailers to vehicles. Such devices include receiver hitches (e.g. pin hitches and ball hitches), gooseneck hitches, fifth wheel hitches, and other types of commonly known hitches. Typical receiving hitches often include a receiving member connected to a vehicle, a ball or pin member connected to the receiving member, and a coupler member connected to the trailer and engaged with the ball member.
FIG. 1 illustrates a prior art version of a receiver hitch 30. The receiver hitch 30 includes a ball member 32 that may be connected to an adjustable member 34. The adjustable member 34 is pinned to a base 36. To adjust the height of the ball member 32, the pins must be removed and the adjustable member 34 may then be aligned with different pinholes. The pins may then be reinserted.
While receiver hitches similar to the receiver hitch 30 illustrated in FIG. 1 may be effective devices for connecting a trailer to a vehicle, problems exists with these designs. The prior art hitches include parts that must be removed in order to adjust the height of the hitch ball or move the hitch ball into a storage position. In addition, loose parts can be lost or allow for theft of the hitch components. The prior art hitches also require tools to change the hitch ball from one size to another. Therefore, there is a need in the art for an improved and easier to use adjustable ballmount hitch to overcome these and other disadvantages.